I know how cool the readers of Restless Chipotle are but I realized that many of you may not! So, once a week I am hoping to introduce a reader so you can get to know them, and their blog if they have one. If you are a fan on the Restless Chipotle Facebook Page you may well be next!

Getting to Know Missy

RC: How long have you been reading Restless Chipotle/Baking Delights?

Missy: I’ve been reading almost two years???

RC: What are your favorite recipes from Restless Chipotle?

Missy: My favorite RC recipes are “Light, Whole Grain Pancakes“, Brisket, Creamy Coq au Vin, and Spicy Citrus Chicken (30 minute meals). There are others, but these the recipes that I remember today.

RC:  What is your favorite ingredient?

Missy: Isn’t that like asking which of my children I like best? ;-D Onion. I can’t cook without onions in the house. (I like sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, too.)

RC: What is your cooking experience?

Missy: My cooking experience is not at all special. My mother worked and I enjoyed cooking, so, she let me loose in the kitchen when I was still in elementary school. I love to pull myself up to the table with older wiser women and just ask them questions and allow myself to be taught. THIS has served me well.

I do not own a Kitchen Aid. I can’t afford one, so I bake bread and mix muffins and roll noodles all by hand. I like the challenge. I do not have a food processor either, because I can’t stand to wash all the pieces. I use a chef’s knife and have taught my children how to wield it as well.

RC: What is your food philosophy?

Missy: My philosophy of food has grown this year. I feel like my eyes are wider. The more I learn about food and industry, the more I want to know. I believe that food should be as close to how God made it as possible. I like the whole food. I like to Learn from our past. I am reluctant to believe that newer is better. Not all of the old ways are bad.

One important idea I see repeated in how food was prepared in the past was that everything served a purpose and there was little waste. I apply this where I can. One chicken equals two meals and the carcase is saved and cooked into a stock becoming a third meal.
This is impossible if I buy precut, boneless, skinless chicken. I get a package that will make one meal.

I buy organic when I can and where it isn’t obscenely more costly. I used to think that eating organic, fresh and local would be too expensive. But, from the moment my husband and I decided it was a worthwhile pursuit, I’ve found that eating well doesn’t break the bank. I hear friend who are using coupons and spending $5 and saving $80 and I think, “At what expense?”

We have a local Organic Co-op, and a local produce market (I believe in supporting local economy too). I have a friend who has free range beef…But, I do not own a deep freeze; that’s my next purchase I think. My monthly produce expense has tripled, but, my other groceries and meats have been at least halved. Organic doesn’t have to mean expensive. Here in the Orlando, Organic cream costs as little as the store brand.

I like the last line of “Food Inc”. We definitely vote with our wallets at the grocery store.

Oh and one more thing. I love to try new ingredients. My husband supports me and encourages this too. When asked “What do you want for dinner?” He always replies, “Something New”

RC: What do you like best about Restless Chipotle?

Missy: I love reading Restless Chipotle because you share my ideas about food and use ingredients that are in season….Just seeing the pictures will often inspire me to make something new that night.

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Thanks Missy! Missy doesn’t have a blog but you can often see her comments on Restless Chipotle! I appreciate all my readers.

image: Karen’s Whimsey

I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that today is the last day of July. You?

When I let the dog out this morning there was not a hint of cool in the air. It is all ready hot and sticky and is just barely 8 a.m. as I write this. Hopefully I can get my work knocked out and head for my float in the pool. At least that is the plan. I am also kicking around a rolled sponge cake filled with creme patisserie and sweet red strawberries in my head. If all goes well it will make it to the table, and the blog!

Saturday is “Donut Day” here. In the past I would try to make donuts on Saturdays as a special treat for the kids…Now my fiance brings them every Saturday. He once told me that once was a tradition and my kids have certainly accepted THAT mentality. It is his own fault though. I tried to warn him.

The cruise is in a little over a month and I am fiercely low-carbing trying to get off some of the extra weight I have. It has been tough. I tried to do the traditional diet/exercise thing but between unstable blood sugar issues and no thyroid gland I gained 13 lbs and 3% more body FAT in three months. Even my trainer was stumped. Low carbing has always been a good choice for me and I am 9 lbs down after 3 weeks. Once you are this far into it cravings are really not an issue and if you avoid that first bite of carbs you are o.k. It has made it a little difficult to keep up with the blog because I tend to taste- taste- taste ….. it is good discipline for being more careful of the dynamics of putting together a recipe and balancing tastes…I suppose somewhat like Beethoven writing symphonies when he was deaf. You have to trust your gut instincts.

About this time of year I start craving apples from two particular trees of my childhood. One was behind a neighbors house, on an old fence line in Pennsylvania and one was on the dirt path between my Aunt’s house and her Uncle’s house in Michigan. I can’t tell you the name of either of these apples, although I suspect the Michigan apple was a Northern Spy… The trees were old and gnarled and for the most part I think they had long since been forgotten about  by everyone but me. The apples picked warm from the tree had a flavor that I have never forgotten and to this day I prefer my apples room temperature or sun warmed. Back then I was a pretty free spirit and roamed over fields and through woods to my heart’s content. By the time I was 8 or so I was happily leaving the house first thing in the morning and tramping through the woods, discovering a world much bigger than the one most kids these days have a chance to experience. I knew every clearing, every climbing tree, every spring and stream for miles. I learned to create my own lunches from sweet wild blackberries and those forgotten apple trees that I came across. By the time I was ten I had read Whitman, Thoreau, and several other Victorian naturalists works and had learned more about the natural world than I ever did in school.

I suppose if I am trying to say anything with my rambling today it would be that kids need to experience the solitude of the woods on a summer day. Maybe rather than rushing them to soccer games and the mall, or allowing them to play hours of video games we could somehow get them outside to explore and interact with nature. It’s necessary and healthy… and you can’t respect what you haven’t experienced. Just a thought.

Enough… Here is today’s Saturday Surfing

Lavender Lemonade Martini

Cinnamon Pecan Biscuits with Peaches and Cream

Vanilla Bean Macarons with Roasted Strawberry Buttercream

Double Chocolate Brownie Semifreddo

Blueberry Citrus Bundt Cake

That’s all I have time for today. You know, if you visit a blog, mine or another, take a minute to make a comment. It is just nice to know people are reading and it helps the writer get to know the readers.

I should take my own advice.

How fun are giveaways?

Congrats to the five winners in this weeks giveaway:

1. Linette Gerlach
2. Cindy Turner
3. Louis
4. Kristin Cook
5. Lisa H.

I will be emailing you shortly. I just need you to get back to me with your information so I can pass it on to the publisher. Congrats!

July is a pretty special month around here. Three of my eight kids have birthdays (first, third, eleventh), a close friend is on the 21, and of course there is Fourth of July.

And frankly, RestlessChipotle is not growing fast enough for me. There it is. The search engines do not like RestlessChipotle nearly as much as they did Baking Delights. So, in deciding to do a giveaway, I decided to just blow out July with random giveaways. I think I have six or seven sponsors wanting to work with me on this. I am working on more… Cool stuff… not like 20 cent coupons for canned mystery meat or anything.

I will announce the first giveaway this evening so check back here.  Exciting, isn’t it?

I can’t wait until you see what this stuff is…..

A few weeks ago my friend Julie asked me a few questions and hinted that she had something for me. I was curious but overworked enough not to ask too many questions about it.

A few days later she sent me a gorgeous E-Book based on my recipes called, The Adventurous Kitchen. She told me how to set it up and how to make it so that you can download it for free.

It is 43 pages ofsome of my favorite  recipes and suggestions for spices and condiments to keep on hand. Included are:

• Cheddar Bacon Smashed Potatoes
• Collard Green Jambalaya from my friend Edye
• Spicy Coconut Risotto with Sausage
• Cheesecakes. A bunch of them
• And everyone’s favorite…the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake.

And she even put images in there….so….Click on the link! The download is free….

The Adventurous Kitchen

I will be adding the link to the sidebar as well.